German men and women, if I speak today again after many
long months to you it is not to reply to one of those
statesmen who recently wondered why I had been silent for
such a long time. Posterity will one day be able to weigh up
which was more important in the past three and a half months,
the speeches of Churchill or my actions.

I have come here today to deliver a short introductory
address on the Winter Help scheme. This time it was
particularly difficult for me to come here because in the
hours in which I can be here a new, gigantic event is taking
place on our eastern front.

For the last forty-eight hours an operation of gigantic
proportions is again in progress, which will help to smash
the enemy in the East. I am talking to you on behalf of
millions who are at this moment fighting and want to ask the
German people at home to take upon themselves, in addition to
other sacrifices, that of Winter Help this year.

Since June 22 a battle of decisive importance for the
world has been taking place. Only posterity will clearly see
its dimensions and depth and will realize that it marked a
new era.

I did not want this struggle. Since January, 1933, when
Providence entrusted me with the leadership of the German
Reich, I had an aim before my eyes which was essentially
incorporated in the program of our National Socialist party.
I have never been disloyal to this aim and have never
abandoned my program.

I made efforts to bring about the construction of a
people who, after a war lost through its own fault, had
experienced the deepest collapse in its history. This in
itself was a gigantic task. And I began this task at a moment
when others had either failed in it or no longer believed in
the possibility of ever accomplishing such a task. What we
achieved in these years in the way of peaceful reconstruction
is unparalleled.

It is for me and my collaborators an offense to be
compelled to have dealings with those democratic entities who
are not in a position to look back even upon one single true
great work in their lives. I and all of us did not need this
war to perpetuate our names. Moreover, we were not at the end
of our achievements, but in some fields still at the
beginning.

We succeeded in internally restoring our Reich although
under difficult conditions for in Germany 140 people per
square kilometer have to be fed. Yet we have solved our
problems, while others foundered on the problem.

We had the following principles: First, the internal
consolidation of the German nation; second, the attainment of
equal rights externally; third, the unity of the German
people and thus the restoration of natural conditions which
had been interrupted only artificially.

Our external program, therefore, was laid down in
advance. This did not mean that we would ever strive for war.
But one thing was certain, that we would in no circumstances
renounce the restoration of German freedom and thus one of
the conditions of the German revival.

I have submitted to the world many proposals along these
lines. I need not repeat them here. This is done by my
publicist collaborators. How many peace offers have I made to
the world and disarmament proposals for a peaceful, new sound
world economic order? All these were rejected by those who
could not hope that such peaceful work would keep their
regime at the helm.

In spite of that we gradually succeeded through long
years of peaceful work in carrying through not only great
internal reforms but also the unity of the German nation, in
creating the German Reich and in bringing back millions of
Germans to their homeland.

During this period I succeeded in gaining a number of
allies. These were headed by Italy, with whose statesmen I am
linked by ties of personal and cordial friendship. Our
relations with Japan continue to improve. In Europe, t00,
there were a number of nations and States which maintained
their old friendship and sympathy, in particular Hungary and
some Nordic States. New nations have been added to a number
of these.

Unfortunately there is not among them the nation I wooed
most strongly, Britain. The British people as a whole do not
bear the sole responsibility. On the contrary, there are a
few people who, in their deep hatred, in their senselessness,
sabotage every attempt at such an understanding supported by
that enemy of the world whom you all know, international
Jewry.

We did not succeed in bringing about such a link between
Great Britain, especially the English people, with the German
people as I had always hoped for. Just as in 1914 the moment
came when a hard decision had to be taken. I did not shrink
from it, for I realized one thing, that if it were impossible
to gain the friendship of England it would be better if
Germany experienced her enmity at a time when I was still the
leader of Germany.

If the friendship of England could not be won by the
measures I had taken and the advances I had made, then it
could never be won in the future. There was no other choice
then but to fight.

I am grateful to fate that I may lead this fight. I am
convinced that no understanding can be reached with these
men. They are mad fools, men who for ten years had not spoken
another word but "We want another war with
Germany." When I endeavored to bring about an
understanding, Churchill cried, "I want war!"

He has got it now. And all his co-warmongers, who say
that this will be a "charming war," who
congratulated each other on Sept. 1, 1939, on this coming
"charming war," may now perhaps think differently
about this "charming war," and should they not know
yet that this war is no charming affair for England they will
surely become aware of it in due course, as truly as I am
here. These warmongers succeeded in pushing Poland forward,
these warmongers not only of the Old World but also of the
New World.

That was the time when England did not go about begging
others for help, but still magnanimously promised help to
everyone. This has since changed In those days I made
proposals to Poland. Now that events have taken a course
different from the one we wished, I must say that it was
indeed Providence that prevented the acceptance of my offer
at the time.

This conspiracy of democratic Jews and Free Masons
dragged Europe into war two years ago. Arms had to decide.

Since then a struggle has been taking place between truth
and lies and, as always, this war will end in the victory for
truth. In other words, whatever lies British propaganda,
international world Jewry and its democratic accomplices may
concoct they will not change historical facts. And it is a
historical fact that for two years now Germany has been
defeating one opponent after another.

I did not want it. Immediately after the first conflict I
again held out my hand. I have been a soldier myself and I
know how difficult it is to win a victory.

My hand was rejected. And since then we have seen that
each peace offer was immediately exploited by the warmonger
Churchill and his confreres so that they could say it was
proof of our weakness. I have, therefore, given up trying
this way. I have laboriously reached this conclusion: a clear
decision must be fought out, that is to say, a decision of
importance for history for the next hundred years.

Always endeavoring to limit the scope of the war, I
decided to do something which was difficult for me to do. In
1939 I sent my Minister to Moscow. That meant the most bitter
triumph over my feelings. I tried to come to an
understanding.

You yourselves know best how honestly we observed our
obligations. Neither in our press nor at our meetings was a
single word about Russia mentioned. Not a single word about
bolshevism. Unfortunately, the other side did not observe
their obligations from the beginning.

This arrangement resulted in a betrayal which at first
liquidated the whole northeast of Europe. You know best what
it meant for us to look on in silence as the Finnish people
were being strangled, what it meant to us that the Baltic
States were also being overpowered. What that meant can be
judged by those who know German history and know that there
is not a single square kilometer there of land which has not
been opened up to culture and civilization by German pioneer
work.

Yet I remained silent. I took a decision only when I saw
that Russia had reached the hour to advance against us at a
moment when we had only a bare three divisions in East
Prussia, when twenty-two Soviet divisions were assembled
there. We gradually received proof that on our frontiers one
airdrome after another was set up, and one division after
another from the gigantic Soviet Army was being assembled
there.

I was then obliged to become anxious for there is no
excuse in history for negligence. I am responsible for the
present of the German people and as far as possible for its
future. I was therefore compelled slowly to take defensive
measures.

But in August and September of last year one thing was
becoming clear. A decision in the West with England which
would have contained the whole German Luftwaffe was no longer
possible, for in my rear there stood a State which was
getting ready to proceed against me at such a moment, but it
is only now that we realize how far the preparation had
advanced. I wanted once again to clarify the whole problem
and therefore I invited Molotov [Russian Foreign Commissar]
to Berlin.

He put to me the four well-known conditions. First,
Germany should finally agree that, as Russia felt herself
again endangered by Finland, Russia should be able to
liquidate Finland. This was the first question which I found
difficult to answer. But I could not do otherwise than refuse
this.

The second question concerned Rumania, a question whether
a German guarantee would protect Rumania against Russia.
Here, too, I stand by my word. I do not regret it, for I have
found in General Antonescu a man of honor who at the time
blindly stood by his word.

The third question referred to Bulgaria. Molotov demanded
that Russia should retain the right to send garrisons to
Bulgaria and thus to give a Russian guarantee to Bulgaria.
What this means we know from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

In this question I said that such a guarantee was
conditioned by the wishes of the country whose guarantee was
to be given and that I did not know anything about it and
that I would have to make inquiries and to consult with my
allies.

The fourth question referred to the Dardanelles. Russia
demanded bases on the Dardanelles. If Molotov is now trying
to deny this, that is not surprising. If tomorrow or the day
after tomorrow he will be no longer in Moscow, he will deny
that he is no longer in Moscow.

He made this demand and I rejected it. I had to reject
it. This made things clear to me and further talks were
without result. My precautions were called for.

After that I carefully watched Russia. Each division we
could observe was carefully noted and counter-measures were
taken.

The position in May had so far advanced that I could no
longer dismiss the thought of a life and death conflict. At
that time I had always to remain silent, and that was doubly
difficult for me, perhaps not so difficult with regard to the
German people for they had to realize there are moments when
one cannot talk if one does not wish to endanger the whole
nation.

More difficult was silence for me with regard to my
soldiers, who, division by division, stood on the eastern
frontier of the Reich and yet did not know what was actually
going on. And it was just on account of them I could not
speak.

Had I dropped one single word I would not have changed
Stalin's decision. But the possibility of surprise, which
remained for me as a last weapon, would then not have
existed.

Any such indication, any such hint, would have cost the
lives of hundreds of thousands of our comrades. I was
therefore silent until the moment when I finally decided to
take the first step myself. When I see the enemy levering his
rifle at me I am not going to wait till he presses the
trigger. I would rather be the first to press the trigger.

This was the most difficult decision of my whole life for
every such step opened up the gate behind which secrets are
hidden so that posterity will know how it came about and how
it happened. Thus one can only rely on one's conscience, the
confidence of one's people, one's own weapons and what one
asks of the Almighty. Not that He supports inaction but He
blesses him who is himself ready and willing to fight and
make sacrifices for his existence.

On June 22, in the morning, the greatest battle in the
history of the world started. Since then something like three
and a half months have elapsed and here I say this:

Everything since then has proceeded according to plan.
During the whole period the initiative has not been taken
even for a second out of the hand of our leadership. Up to
the present day every action has developed just as much
according to plan as formerly in the east against Poland and
then against the west and finally against the Balkans.

But I must say one thing at this point: We have not been
wrong in our plans. We have also not been mistaken about the
efficiency and bravery of the German soldier. Nor have we
been mistaken about the quality of our weapons.

We have not been mistaken about the smooth working of the
whole organization at the front and extending over a gigantic
area in the rear. Neither have we been mistaken about the
German homeland.

We have, however, been mistaken about one thing. We had
no idea how gigantic the preparations of this enemy were
against Germany and Europe and how immeasurably great was the
danger, how by the skin of our teeth we have escaped the
destruction not only of Germany but also of Europe.

That I can say now. I say it only today because I can say
that this enemy is already broken and will never rise again.

Her power had been assembled against Europe, of which
unfortunately most had no idea and many even today have no
idea. This would have been a second storm of Ghengis Khan.
That this danger was averted we owe in the first place to the
bravery, endurance and sacrifice of the German soldiers and
also the sacrifice of those who marched with us.

For the first time something like a European awakening
passed through this continent. In the north, Finland is
fighting, a true nation of heroes, for in her wide spaces she
relies on her own strength, her bravery and tenacity.

In the south, Rumania is fighting. It has recuperated
with astonishing speed from one of the most difficult crises
that may befall a country and the people are led by a man at
once brave and quick at making decisions.

This embraces the whole width of this battlefield from
the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea. Our German soldiers are
now fighting in these areas and with them in their ranks
Finns, Italians, Hungarians, Rumanians, Slovaks, Croats and
Spaniards are now going into battle. Belgians, Netherlanders,
Danes, Norwegians and even Frenchmen have joined.

The progress of this unparalleled event is known to you
in outline. Of the three German Army groups, one had the task
to break open the center and to open up the way to the right
and the left. Two flanking groups had the task, one to
advance against Leningrad and the other to occupy the
Ukraine. These first tasks have been substantially achieved.

During this time of great historical fighting the enemy
is asking, "Why is nothing happening?" But
something had always been happening. But because something
was happening we could not talk.

If I were the British Prime Minister today, I would
probably keep talking in the circumstances because there is
nothing happening there and that is the difference. We could
not, not because we did not pay homage to the everlasting
achievements of our soldiers, but because we could not give
any information to the enemy in advance of situations of
which he, with his miserable news service, became aware only
days or even weeks later.

A German High Command communiqué is the report of
truth even if some stupid British newspaper lout declares it
must first be confirmed. German High Command
communiqués have been thoroughly confirmed. We have
defeated the Poles and not the Poles us, although the British
press has been saying the opposite. There also is no doubt
that we are in Norway, and not the British.

Nor is there any doubt we were successful in the
Netherlands and Belgium and not the English. There is also no
doubt that Germany has conquered France and that we are in
Greece and not the English or the New Zealanders. Nor are
they in Crete but we are there. Thus the German High Command
spoke the truth.

It is not different in the East. According to the British
version we have for three months suffered one defeat after
another, yet we are 1,000 kilometers beyond our frontier. We
are east of Smolensk, we are before Leningrad and are on the
Black Sea. We are before the Crimea and the Russians are not
on the Rhine.

If, therefore, the Russians have been continuously
victorious they did not make use of their victories. Indeed,
after every victory they marched back 100 or 200 kilometers,
evidently to lure us deep into the area.

The magnitude of this battle is shown by the following
figures. There are many among you who have experienced the
World War and they know what it means to take prisoners and
to advance hundreds of kilometers.

The number of prisoners has now risen to roughly
2,500,000 Russians. The number of captured or destroyed guns
in our hands is, in round figures, 22,000. The number of
captured or destroyed tanks in our hands amounts to over
18,000. The number of destroyed and shot-down planes is over
14,500.

Behind our front line is a Russian area twice as large as
the German Reich when I took over leadership in 1933, or four
times as large as England. The beeline covered by the German
soldiers is from over 800 to 1,000 kilometers. The marching
distance of this is often one and a half times or twice as
great.

They are fighting on a front of gigantic length, and
against an enemy who, I must say, does not consist of human
beings but of animals or beasts. We have seen now what
Bolshevism can make of human beings.

We cannot bring to the people at home the pictures we
have at our disposal. They are the most sinister that human
brains can imagine The enemy is fighting with a bestial lust
of blood on the one hand and out of cowardice and fear of his
commissars on the other hand.

Our soldiers have come to know the land after twenty-five
years of Bolshevist rule. Those who went there and, in their
hearts or bodies, have something of a communistic outlook in
the narrowest sense of the term, have returned cured of this
idea.

The pictures of this paradise of workers and peasants as
I have always described it will be confirmed by five or six
million soldiers after the end of this war. They will be
witnesses upon whom I can call. They have marched through the
streets of this paradise.

It is a single armaments factory against Europe at the
expense of the standard of living of the people. Our soldiers
have won victories against this cruel, bestial opponent,
against this opponent with the mighty armaments.

I cannot think of a phrase that would do justice to them.
What they are continually achieving in bravery, courage and
immeasurable efforts cannot be imagined.

Whether we take our airmen or fighters, our dive-bombers,
our navy crews which man our U-boats, whether we finally take
our Alpine troops in the north, or whether we take men of the
S. S. detachments, they are all alike. But above all, and I
would like to emphasize this especially now, stand the
achievements of the German infantrymen.

We have three divisions, my friends, which since Spring
have marched from 2,000 to 3,000 kilometers. This includes
numerous divisions which have covered 1,500 or 2,000
kilometers. This speaks for itself.

I can say that if one speaks of lightning war, then these
soldiers deserve to have their deeds described as lightning,
for such performances in marches forward have never been
surpassed in history, except by the headlong flights of some
English regiments.

There are only some historic, precipitated retreats which
have surpassed these performances. In any case, there was no
question of such long distances, for the enemy took care to
keep near to the coast.

I do not mean thereby to disparage the enemy. I only want
to render to the German soldier the justice he deserves. He
has achieved the unsurpassable. All organizations associated
with him are partly workers, but also partly soldiers. For in
this mighty space almost everybody is a soldier today.

Every worker is a soldier. Every railway man is a
soldier. In the whole of this area everybody must build with
weapons, and it is a colossal area. What was achieved behind
this front is just as grandiose as the achievements at the
front.

Over 25,000 kilometers of Russian railways are again
functioning. Over 15,000 kilometers of Russian railways have
been converted to the German gauge. In the east the length of
line which today has been converted into the German gauge is
more than fifteen times as great as what used to be the
longest trunk line in the Reich, that from Stettin to the
Bavarian Alps, which is just short of 1,000 kilometers.

What this has cost in sweat and effort even the people at
home may not appraise. And behind all this there are the
labor battalions and labor services of our organization. The
whole gigantic front of these services and of the Red Cross,
medical officers, stretcher bearers and Red Cross nurses are
all making sacrifices.

Behind this front a new administration is already being
built to look after the whole of this gigantic area.

If this war lasts much longer, Germany and her allies
will make use of it and its usefulness will be tremendous,
for there is no doubt that we know how to organize it. If I
give you now, in a few sentences, a picture of the unique
achievements of the German soldiers and of all those who are
today fighting or working in the East, I would also convey to
you the gratitude of our soldiers for the excellent,
first-class weapons the country has supplied to them and
their gratitude for the munitions that are at their disposal
in unlimited quantities as fast as they can be transported.

There is only the problem of transportation. We have seen
to it that, in the midst of this huge war of material, the
function of production has been organized in a large area,
for I know that there is now no adversary who cannot be
forced to yield by an available mass of munitions.

And if at times you read in the newspapers about the
gigantic plans of other States, of what they intend to do,
and to begin, and when you hear of sums running into
billions, remember I now say, first, we place the whole
continent in the service of this struggle; second, we do not
talk of capital but of labor, and we place this labor 100 per
cent in this service. If we do not talk about it, this does
not mean that we are not doing anything.

I know perfectly well that the others are doing
everything better than we do. They are building tanks that
are invincible, that are faster than ours and do not need any
gasoline. In the fighting we have everywhere put many of them
out of action. That is decisive.

They build wonder planes; everything they do is amazing.
All they do is incomprehensible, even technically
incomprehensible, but they have no machines that can surpass
ours, and the machines we drive or fly today, or with which
we shoot today, are not the machines we shall drive, fly or
shoot with next year.

I believe that will satisfy every German. Everything else
will be seen to by our inventors and by our German workers
and working women. Behind this front of sacrifice and bravery
in the face of death there is also the home front, a front
formed by city and country.

Millions of German workmen are laboring in the cities and
in the country. An entire people is engaged in the struggle.

This united German people was confronted by two extremes
in the world outside. In one the capitalist State denies the
natural right to their people by lies and treachery and in
which they keep solely their own vested interest. On the
other side stood the Communist extreme, a state that has
brought inconceivable misery to millions and desired to bring
the same misery to the entire world.

In my opinion this imposes on us only one duty, to strive
more than ever after our National Socialist ideals. For we
must be clear on one point. When this war is concluded, it is
the German soldier who will have won it, the German soldier
who has come from the peasants and factories, who really
represents the masses of the people.

It will have been won by the German home front, with
millions of men and women workers and peasants, the creative
men in the office and in the professions. All these millions
of active people will have won it. Those who labor at home
have the right to know that this new State will be built for
them.

The experiences of the front will produce still more
fanatic National Socialists. In Germany the system of justice
reigns. He who has been able to lead, whether in the
military, political or economic field, will be equally
valuable and equally esteemed in Germany, but just so highly
esteemed will be he who put out help, without whose
assistance the greatest leadership would not be capable of
anything. That is decisive.

The German people can be proud today. They have the best
political leaders, the best generalissimos, the best
engineers and economic organizers and also the best workmen,
best peasants and best people.

To weld all these people into one indissoluble community
was the task we set ourselves as National Socialists. This
task confronts Germany more clearly today than ever before.

I shall emerge from this war one day again with my party
program, the fulfillment of which is more important to me
today than during those first days. I have come here to tell
the German people that in the Winter Help scheme it has the
opportunity to show the community spirit. What sacrifices
those at the front are bearing cannot be made up by anything.
What the German home front has achieved and will still
achieve will stand before history.

Only when the entire German people become a single
community of sacrifice can we expect and hope that Almighty
God will help us. The Almighty has never helped a lazy man.
He does not help the coward. He does not help a people that
cannot help itself.

The principle applies here, help yourselves and Almighty
God will not deny you his assistance.